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Spotted Green PufferfishSpotted Green Puffer ~ Green Spotted Puffer ~ Spotted Puffer Family: Tetraodontidae
In general freshwater puffers are rarer than saltwater puffers, but the Spotted Green Puffer is one of the most commonly available... and this fish is a most popular attraction!The Spotted Green Puffer is a very cute adorable little fish. It is very playful, active, and curious making it a joy to watch. It has a great personality as well and will come to recognize its owner, getting excited when it sees you. Although this puffer will do well if kept singly as it can be an aggressive fin-nipper, it can also be kept with others of its own kind as well as other species. Be certain that for a community setting you choose large non-aggressive tank mates and a good sized aquarium. Provide plants and rockwork arranged in such a way that they break the line of sight and offer hiding places, but still provide open areas swimming. For more Information on keeping this fish see:
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| Geographic Distribution Tetraodon nigroviridis |
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| Point data provided by FishBase.org |
Distribution:
The Spotted Green Puffers are found in Asia; Sri Lanka to Indonesia and north to China.They inhabit freshwater to brackish coastal estuaries; streams, rivers, and floodplains where they are found singly or in small groups.
NOTE: It is important that you distinguish which pufferfish you are purchasing as their water requirements vary considerably. The Spotted Green Puffer Tetraodon nigroviridis is often confused with its close relatives the Green Puffer or Ceylon Puffer Tetraodon fluviatilis, as well as the Freshwater Spotted Puffer Tetraodon schoutedeni.
Though all three are spotted and have very similar coloration, the Spotted Green Puffer has a more rounded ball shaped body while the Green Puffer's body is more elongated. The Spotted Green Puffer and the Green Puffer are readily available in the industry, while the Freshwater Spotted Puffer reportedly hasn't been available in the industry for a number of years.
Status:
These fish are not endangered.
Description:
The Spotted Green Puffer has a stout rounded body shape with small spines. The face is very cute, having a smallish mouth topped by slightly bulging eyes and a broad forehead . Like many of the pufferfish, the coloring of the Spotted Green Puffer can vary. The adult is a beautiful rich green on top with dark spots and a whitish belly. In juveniles the green is less colorful.
Pufferfish have
the ability to 'puff' themselves up with water or air if threatened. When they inflate, their spines protrude outward and this
apparently helps keep them from being eaten. Another defense of many puffer species is to produce toxic substances in their flesh that is poisonous
if eaten. The Pufferfish can be quite long lived in the aquarium, many living for 10 or more years.
Size - Weight:
These fish can grow up to 6 3/4 inches (17 cm).
Care and feeding:
The Spotted Green Puffers are omnivores, though a large part of their diet is meaty foods. In their natural environment they will eat various invertebrates, crustaceans and mollusks, but they also eat some vegetation.They are not difficult to feed as they will usually eat a variety of flake, frozen, and live foods including shrimp, ghost shrimp (gut-loaded), bloodworms, freeze-dried krill, crabs, brine shrimp, and snails.
Puffers have strong teeth that grow throughout their
lives, so are prone to overgrown teeth. Offer hard shelled live food often
to keep the teeth worn down. Feeding snails daily will help to wear down the teeth. If the teeth get too long, they will be unable to eat, requiring the owner to clip the teeth.
Since puffers do not have gill covers or scales, they are thought to be more susceptible to diseases, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia levels. Like all puffers, this puffer is not a good fish to cycle an aquarium with. Also because they usually don't eat all of their food (messy eaters!), these fish will usually put more load on the aquarium filtration requiring more frequent water changes and better maintenance in general. A generous weekly water change of 30% to 50% is the standard recommendation for a puffer aquarium.
A 20 gallon aquarium will work well for this puffer, however if you want to keep more than one or some other species with them, a well planted 50 - 60 gallon aquarium is better. Provide plenty of plants and rockwork for retreats as well as open areas for swimming. This puffer fish is a freshwater to brackish species and adding aquarium salt is suggested. But like many of the brackish species, the Spotted Green Puffer can be acclimated to hard, alkaline fresh water.
Water Region: Top, Middle, Bottom:
The Spotted Green Puffer will swim in the bottom and middle areas of your aquarium.
Acceptable Water Conditions:
Temp: 75° - 82° F (24 - 28°C)
pH: 7.5 to 8.5
Hardness: 9 - 19 dH (medium to medium hard)
Social Behaviors:
Like all the pufferfish, the Green Spotted Puffer can vary greatly in temperament from one individual to another. They are generally regarded as aggressive fin-nippers and often kept singly. However they can be kept in a community setting with others of their own species as well as other large non-aggressive species. In a community setting, be sure there is plenty of room and that the aquarium is well planted. It can also have a variety of other decor such as rocks and roots. Place the decor in a manner that breaks their line of site and provides plenty of retreats for all the fish.
Sexual Differences:
Sexual differences are unknown.
Breeding/Reproduction:
Has not been bred commercially in captivity, but possibly bred successfully by hobbyists. Research indicates that the female will lay approximately 200 eggs on a smooth, protected surface. They are also known to guard the nest, notably the male.
Availability:
The Spotted Green Puffers are commonly available.
Comments from people who have kept this fish:
GSP are born as fry up in freshwater and move quickly into estuaries and ocean. They cannot live in freshwater and a 20 gallon tank per fish is not enough. They require atleast 30 per fish, minimum, 40-50 is best. People who keep 2 or 3 or 4 GSP in a ten gallon tank, your wasting your time. They pollute water too quick and get bigger than a 10 gallon is long back to front almost! Puffers in general require 50% weekly water changes in a tank suitable for their size, but when you put 3 GSP in a 10 gallon tank, be expecting every 6 hour water changes to keep the water clean. Now, do not get me wrong, Puffers are my forte in aquarium keeping, however if you want a good puff that won't cost you a 50 gallon tank and your bank, I would recommend Red eye puffs, Dwarf puffs or South American Puffs. If I can get this link in, this site is dedicated to puffs, and most of them have been taking care of puffs for 10-30 years.
I have a 120 Gal Cichlid tank and just added a green spotted puffer fish. He became weak after being sucked into a power head. While momentarily weakened my largest and oldest Cichlid took a small bite out of him. Ten minutes later my Cichlid was dead. Needless to say, I am not impressed with the Puffer Fish.
I have two gspufferfish that I recently purchased. I have always had bettas up until I fell in love with the two little guys at the store. Don't get me wrong, bettas are very intriguing personality oriented creatures. I actually found the bettas a rather difficult breed to take care of though. My puffers are much simpler, and their charming characteristics you can hardly compare to any other fish. They go to sleep at night. Mine curl up in little balls and hide their eyes in a dark area :)zzz and as soon as you see them in the morning they want to eat. They have a routine, it's so cute. They tend to not enjoy sudden movements or taping on the glass sides. That tends to scare the pee out of them :P Don't give a fish ever what it doesn't get in nature. Please people, the plastic plants, lets get serious here. The fish are real... do you sleep on a plastic bed? Turn off their lights at night... where does the sun shine 24 hrs? Puffers are Awesome, that's it.
I have four baby gsp's in a ten gallon tank with a couple cray fish to eat the dead remains of their food. I am extremely busy and don't find time to make it to the pet store as often as I'd like so I keep about twenty feeder guppies in their tank with them so they can eat whenever they are hungry. They don't have a problem catching them, but after the tank gets down to about ten fish they stop eating them and I am forced to feed them sinking shrimp pellets and flakes. I wonder if it is a bad idea to keep a stock of feeders in with them.
I have a puffer named Gene Kelly and he is the most active fish I have ever seen. If you have never cared for a fish before I wouldn't recommend them. Make sure to feed them hard food so you don't have to clip their teeth yourself. It's no picnic.
Horatio (Nelson) is our GSP, he is about 2 years old and is kept in solitary confinement in his own tank. He is the most fascinating fish I have ever kept. He sits at the bottom of his tank sleeping and is grey coloured until his light is turned on and he brightens up a lovely emerald green colour with a white belly. Horatio is fed daily. He is currently 2 inches long, he eats bloodworms (dried & frozen), frozen prawns, and dried turtle food along with baby snails sourced from various pet stores free for the asking! Occasionally I will drop in a dead fish from another tank which he will devour! His water is slightly brackish which he appears to thrive in. However recently my 13 year old over fed him! dropped 2 frozen mussel cubes into his tank and he ballooned in size then sat on the bottom of the tank turning black with constipation, this lasted days and I thought he was dying! A spoonful of epsom salts added to the tank seemed to help. He has perked up and looking better this last month.
Some of the coolest comments:
Horatio and his teeth!! Following on from the overfeeding incident Horatio seemed off his food and was a nasty grey colour and not his usual interactive self. On looking at his face he appeared to be all teeth, his top teeth touching his bottom (GSP s have 4 teeth/beak for crunching shells). Googling puffer teeth showed I would need to trim them for him to eat or he would starve! Fearing he would die anyway I carried out the following procedure. I used a dish about 2 inches deep containing his tank water, about 1/2 pint, to which I added 3 drops of clove oil. I placed him into dish and gently rocked the dish until his fins stopped moving and he rolled onto his side. Then I fished him out in a net trimming his teeth with cuticle cutters (heart stopping stuff), steady hand required and not for the faint hearted! Once I had trimmed back a suitable amount I placed him back into his tank still in the net with the filter water on him until there was movement. About 20 minutes later he was swimming around. A day later he was looking a lot less grey and is now his playful self.
Temperments very greatly with these guys! Most are very subdued and just plain happy go lucky. I have 2 of these guys in my 90 gallon with several other fish, all MILDLY agressive. When first introduced to the tank they nipped at the fins of my angel, but after approximately a week, they left her alone. Some don't stop and do need to be placed in their own tank, but most will do very well in a comunity tank as long as the tank has fish agressive enough to set these little guys straight. Other than that, they are a very cute, fun, friendly, smart, and entertaining fish to care for. I personally would put their temperment in a class similar to an oscar, but of course on a much smaller size scale. I suggest anyone that wants an easy to care for, fun to watch fish, get at least one of these cuties.
Author: Clarice Brough CFFS
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